This application claims priority to German Patent Application No. 101 40 761.0, filed on Aug. 20, 2001, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a wafer handling device.
From wafer fabrication technology it is known for wafers to be processed in so-called chamber processes or bath processes to be combined into groups and, by means of suitable wafer carriers, moved into an appropriate process chamber or an appropriate bath.
The known wafer carriers are containers with a number of insertion slots, into which the wafers are inserted individually. Usually, in particular when thin wafers are used, they need a relatively large amount of space for each wafer, to be specific typically one space of ten times the wafer thickness for each wafer.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to specify a wafer handling device which permits an increase in the wafer throughput in wafer fabrication.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by the wafer handling device specified in claim 1.
The idea on which the present invention is based is to increase the wafer throughput by two wafers being joined back to back and, joined in this way, put into an appropriate process. For this purpose, the two wafers are held by a special fixing device on a base plate located between them. In this way, by means of the fixing device, a temporary connection between two wafers back to back can be set up for individual process steps.
The wafer handling device according to the invention has, inter alia, the advantage that the wafer throughput can be virtually doubled.
Advantageous refinements and improvements of the wafer handling device specified in claim 1 will be found in the subclaims.
According to one preferred development, the fixing device has two ring-like flaps.
According to a further preferred development, the two ring-like flaps are held on the base plate at a common hinge.
According to a further preferred development, the base plate has a recess on each side to hold the respective wafer.
According to a further preferred development, the base plate is configured in such a way that the back of the wafer is sealed off hermetically when the wafer is fixed. This development of the wafer handling device is in particular of great benefit for cases in which the back of the wafer is intended not to come into contact with a process medium. In this case, it was previously necessary to provide the back of the wafer with a protective layer, for example with a varnish layer. This is rendered superfluous when the wafer handling device according to the invention is used, if said device is dimensioned in such a way that the back of the wafer is sealed off hermetically.
According to a further preferred development, the wafer handling device according to the invention is used in a chamber process, in particular an oven process, plasma process, deposition process or bath process or the like.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated in the drawings and explained in more detail in the following description.